‘Oh Well’ Is Way Past its Time  

by Ernie McCray

We seem to be a country
that looks at its most pressing
social and political problems
with mystified eyes
and shoulder shrugs
that say
“Oh well.”
Like we dismiss
the nation’s propensity
for mass murders
that break hearts in two
with a prayer or two
and get right back
to whatever it is we do.
A return
to where we started from,
with nothing done
towards solving the problem.

We say “Oh well”
to pretty much anything,
as though it’s merely routine.

“Oh well”
to Black folks
always having to protect their right to vote.

“Oh well”
to the exorbitant prices
we have to pay to stay healthy
or earn a college degree.

“Oh well”
to the tampering
of our nation’s history.
I mean beyond a few “Que sera seras”
we just can’t seem|
to alter such realities.

But we did a big
“Oh well”/”Whatever”/”Whatcha gonna do”
boo-boo,
a few years ago,
that exposed
what lollygagging and lagging
can do
to a society,
as a man who now goes by
inmate number P01135809
is again running for president
with millions of people
and a major political party backing him,
no matter, to them, that from A-Z,
he’s arguably
the most flawed human being
in human history,
an asinine barbarous clueless dastardly
egomaniacal frightful godawful hedonistic
irritating joyless kind-less loveless
menacing nincompoop-ish offensive puzzling
quibbling repulsive sadistic traitorous
unyielding vindictive woeful xenophobic
yucky zeitgeist-destroying
asshole
with not a single redeeming quality
in his makeup to save his soul.

If we keep letting this demon
slide with an
“Oh well” here and there
he will bring our democracy
to its weak and wobbly knees
like a heavy hitting heavyweight
putting it to a punch-drunk pugilist
way past his prime.
Allowing that
would be akin to a crime.

Not depending
on “Oh well”
as a non-solution
to the serious issues
we face
is way past its time.